[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pinball_construction_set2_6958.jpg]]''Pinball Construction Set'' is a 1983 VideoGame by Bill Budge for building DigitalPinballTables. It is best known for being the TropeMaker and UrExample of the GameMaker genre, and was one of the launch titles for a company called Creator/ElectronicArts.

With the success of Budge's ''VideoGame/RasterBlaster'' pinball game, he decided to expand the tools he had created for that title and make a game about making games. After writing a mini-paint program, sound editor, a save/load system, and several other tools, he dubbed the title ''Pinball Construction Set'', then started [=BudgeCo=] with his sister and distributed it to software stores in plastic bags. But Budge soon became burdened by the marketing work needed by a software publisher, and he struck a deal with Trip Hawkins, who was looking for titles to fill Electronic Arts' launch roster.

''PCS'' came with five sample pinball tables; Budge claimed he made "Astro Blast" in a half-hour. The title's main draw, however, was the construction tools, which were controlled with an icon-based drag-and-drop interface. As one would expect, players could adjust the board's boundaries, place components, wire items and establish scoring rules, paint the playfield and title, and even adjust the physics engine. Players could then save the game for later replay, either inside ''PCS'' or as stand-alone binaries to share with others.

With EA's distribution, ''Pinball Construction Set'' became a blockbuster hit, eventually selling over 300,000 copies across the UsefulNotes/AppleII, UsefulNotes/Atari8BitComputers, UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}}, and UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer versions. Budge became famous as one of Electronic Arts' premiere "rock star" developers, and was sent on junkets in computer game stores, shopping malls, and television shows. EA followed ''PCS''[='=] success with similar {{Game Maker}}s like ''Music Construction Set'', ''Racing Destruction Set'', and ''Adventure Construction Set''.

''Pinball Construction Set'' was ported to the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis in 1993 with the title ''Virtual Pinball''.

''Computer Gaming World'' named ''PCS'' "Most Innovative Computer Game" in their 15th anniversary issue. In 2008, it was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for "User Generated Content/Game Modification", and was an inductee in [=GameSpy=]'s Hall of Fame.

The source code for the [[UsefulNotes/Atari8BitComputers Atari 800]] version of ''PCS'' is publicly available on [=GitHub=] [[https://github.com/billbudge/PCS_Atari800 here]].

----!!This game demonstrates the following tropes:

* EndlessGame: "Endless" insofar as there is no limit to the number or types of pinball games that can be made, anyway.* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin* GameBreakingBug: The IBMPersonalComputer version has a bug where adding too many parts prevented you from saving the game... or from removing parts so it ''can'' be saved.* GameMaker* LevelEditor* StockSoundEffects----